


The Gods Are Laughing

by igotanobsession



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: ASOS Spoilers, Gen, Mini, Prompt Fic, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-22
Updated: 2013-05-22
Packaged: 2017-12-12 14:51:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/812804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/igotanobsession/pseuds/igotanobsession
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Spoilers through ASoS. What if Cersei, curious about the woman who escorted her brother Jaime back to King’s Landing, met with Brienne before she left on her quest? Prompt from Tumblr. Pro-Jaime/Brienne, but... uh... he's not in it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Gods Are Laughing

**Author's Note:**

  * For [clumsycapitolunicorn](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=clumsycapitolunicorn).



> I wrote this based on a prompt from Tumblr: “I want a one-shot of Cersei meeting Brienne and feeling threatened by her, maybe in KL. Maybe she notices these things and Jaimes love for Brienne and hers for Jaime, before either of them realise this. Please? I want a fic where Cersei feels threatened by this woman who is not prettier than her and yet she is pretty in Jaimes eyes because that’s the thing that happens, also because she isn’t a psycho.” - clumsycapitolunicorn 
> 
> Background from ASoS: Brienne is stuck in a tower cell of the Red Keep in King’s Landing. She was upset about her detainment, and at the same time was probably confused that Jaime sent Septa Donyse to make her a more well-fitting gown (presumably than the pink nasty thing that she wore). Jaime and Cersei have had two major encounters in the chapters leading up to the moment where Jaime knows that he has lost Cersei. He finally goes to see Brienne after Cersei has left, and presents her with Oathkeeper. 
> 
> This scene takes place after that, but before she goes questing for Sansa.
> 
> Hope that you like it!

Cersei made sure to stand in the shadows outside of the Maid of Tarth’s tower cell so that she could observe her through the door’s bars for a while. The woman was as large as people said—larger, even. _It’s a wonder that she’s real and not some sort of monster from a child’s tale,_ she thought. Light streamed in on Lady Brienne through her window which faced the sea, which she gazed out at unflinchingly. _Turn around, beast, so that I can see your famed “beauty”,_ Cersei grumbled within herself. All that Cersei could see was that she had short, straw-colored hair unbecoming a lady and a large pair of shoulders squarely framing what would have been a lovely blue gown on another maiden. 

There were such things that she had heard about the woman over the past week that were not to be believed. Not long after her encounter with Jaime in the Sept during her mourning of Joffrey, one of her handmaidens mentioned hearing of a nickname: “The Kingslayer’s Whore.” _Ha!_ Cersei had been drinking Dornish red as she readied herself for bed when she heard it. She almost spat the wine out all over her nightgown! The idea of Jaime bedding another woman was preposterous enough, without the woman being particularly famed for her lack of beauty. Brienne of Tarth, or “Brienne the Beauty,” as commoners and lords alike seemed to enjoy calling her. She was taller than most men, she had heard, and dressed like them, too, imagining herself to be some sort of knight. _The gods did not intend for women to be warriors, or else I would be the knight and Jaime would be the one wearing dresses._

Cersei wished that she could see better into the woman’s cell. Its generous space, taking up the whole of the tower’s girth, afforded her little detail at such a distance. With a great sigh, Cersei picked up the basket that she brought, and let herself in with the key she had wrangled from the guards. She dismissed them long before, preferring as always, to be alone. Her long brocade gown swept the ground behind her as she confidently strode across the room toward the woman. Cersei could see that the woman was surprised, but the morning light from the window left the details of the Maid lost in silhouette against the glare.

“Lady Brienne of Tarth,” Cersei purred in snide announcement, “I am sorry that we have not yet met. I am Cersei, _beloved_ sister to your Jaime.”

Remembering herself, perhaps, Brienne ducked her head as she curtsied low. “Your Grace,” she said, deferentially.

By the time the woman stood again, Cersei’s eyes adjusted to the light. _Oh, Gods. She is not only larger than they say_ —she is uglier, too. A smirk spread on Cersei’s face, her eyes glittering as she took in the woman’s features. _How many times has that nose been broken? Freckles. Her lips are too full, taking over her face. And those..._ She stopped her criticism at Brienne’s eyes. They were gorgeous. Large and blue, a deep blue, at once radiant as sapphires and as wondrous as the inky midnight blue of twilight. Cersei felt herself startled at those eyes, her heart catching in her throat. _No,_ she thought, shaking it off, _you’re making too much out of one fine aspect amidst a dreadful, pathetic excuse for a female._

Realizing that she had been standing silent in her observation of Brienne of Tarth from the way that the woman dared to look questioningly back at her, she let out a laugh. It was a full, assertive, but still feminine laugh. It was the laugh of a lover. It was meant to make the woman jealous. 

“Your Grace?” Brienne asked, confused. The way that the blue gown she wore miserably failed to narrow her shoulders made Cersei warm at heart. The gown would have done more for a sow in a mudpit than it has for this thing. Cersei felt relieved, despite herself. 

“Lady Brienne, I have heard of your ‘beauty,’” she said in her most cutting dulcet tones, “and have come to see for myself. You are known throughout Westeros, you know. And farther, I am sure.”

Cersei saw that she got her with that, but not as much as she had hoped that she would. The woman shifted a bit, but simply pulled her already serious face into a frown. Cersei pushed the basket into her hands.

“I brought you a gift my lady, of some of Jaime’s very favorite things to eat, since you love him so much.”

“Your Grace, I do not... love--”

“Oh, tut, tut, woman! It is known far and wide. Are you not known as his ‘whore’?”

Cersei grinned as she saw the woman turn red all over. _Gentle maidens blush becomingly, while this one could have been dipped from head to toe in a vat of beet juice,_ Cersei thought in disgust. _Delightful._

“Thank you for the gift, Your Grace,” the woman said, her voice barely containing its insolence.

“I was hoping to hear from you about your experiences with my brother. I am sure that he has not an ounce of love for you, but that you treasured every mistaken hint of kindness, didn’t you?”

The woman stayed silent. Brienne seemed to have regained her composure, paling back to her creamy white complexion, marred as it was by freckles. “He was unkind, Your Grace. He called me names always, and tried to provoke me,” Brienne answered, after an overlong staring contest.

“That sounds like him,” Cersei mumbled to herself, shaking her head. _Why did I doubt him?_

“But, he has done far more good for me than harm, Your Grace.”

“Do tell, what kindness you think that he has done for you?” Cersei sneered, nearly bored with their dialogue. _Why do I still interrogate her? There can be nothing in this!_

“He has saved my life, my... maidenhood, twice. I realize now that even his order to place me in this cell was a way of saving me,” the giant woman said thoughtfully, her gemlike eyes never leaving contact with Cersei’s own. "So, three times, Your Grace."

Cersei’s breaths increased, her anger building. Again, she felt her heart beating faster. _There is the other rumor. It was too ridiculous to be believed._ Brienne of Tarth was rumored to be the very reason that Jaime had been later to arrive in King’s Landing than her father Tywin had been assured that he would be by Roose Bolton. Jaime told everyone that she had escorted him to King’s Landing, but according to the men who did the escorting, it was in fact the other way around. It was Jaime, now crippled and strange, who had done the escorting. After he had risked his life to save the woman from a bear pit! Jaime already left for King’s Landing, it was said, when he decided to turn around to Harrenhal to retrieve her. _Jaime, who would not so much as lift his voice at the members of the supposed “Kingsguard” who failed to keep my Joffrey alive. I have heard wrong. That must be it. Jaime would not help this thing up from a stumble, much less save her from a bear._

“Am I to believe that Jaime jumped into a bear pit at Harrenhal for you, as I have heard?” Cersei asked, her voice less sure, but still edged with venom.

Brienne narrowed her eyes. “Yes, Your Grace, Ser Jaime _foolishly_ jumped in after me, even though he was without weapon, and was missing his right hand besides.”

Cersei felt her stomach drop. _This is too much._ She backed away, leaving Brienne still holding the basket of butter cookies and oranges which she had brought to mock her. Now, it seemed as though Brienne the Beauty was mocking her. _He must be crazy,_ Cersei thought. The imprisonment has driven him mad. Brienne stood tall, defiant against her. She is no coward, she thought with annoyance. _She is brave. Fearless, even,_ she thought, picturing the giant woman escorting Jaime across Westeros day after day. _Naïve. Ungainly. Unfeminine._

Cersei was still walking backward toward the door, images of Jaime, with his pleas to marry her... The love that was always in his eyes for her, his twin, his other half. Love that she forced him to keep hidden. Love that she did not return equally. She could still see Brienne’s eyes clearly watching her, but not only did she see them, she felt their power. They met her gaze not in defense of herself and her feelings, Cersei realized, but in defense of Jaime’s. _She is selfless. She is true._

As she rushed down the stairs, Cersei felt her eyes grow hot with tears. Angry, she pushed them away. _Why do I shed tears over something that is clearly... it simply cannot be true. The Gods were having a laugh when they brought that woman into the world._ Cersei stopped in the spiral stairwell, suddenly weary from the exertion. _Or, is the laugh on me?_ She wiped her brow, which had become slightly damp. No one ever saw her in disarray, and she was not about to change that. Jaime simply wanted to be loved, she knew. It had always been that way, that he yearned for her love, would do anything for it, but she would keep it away from him, in reserve. After all of these years, Cersei could not remember how to love in the way that he needed her to. _Brienne of Tarth loves him, although she denies it. I saw it true, from the first to the last moment that I spent with her. She loves him as he needs. Why else would he risk himself for her?_ Her tears sprang back unbidden as she sank to sit on the stairs beneath her. _The Gods are laughing at me. The Gods are laughing._

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are always welcome!


End file.
